Raven's Blood and Robin's Brood
by Fellbound
Summary: Robin's in Jump, after helping Batman with a crime wave in Gotham, & in no mood for Malchior being on the Tower's roof. Seeing Robin deal with the Dragon, Raven sees she might not be alone in having secrets. Breath of fire RobRae brood teen titans power.
1. Chapter 1  Confession

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, Breath of Fire, DC Comics in general or anything else I drew on or one may suspect I drew from in the creation of this Fanfic, which incidentally is a non-profit work. Other than all the copywrited and otherwise preowned stuff however, this is all me.

**Writer's Challenge:** Robin gets Powers Challenge: This is a challenge to fanfic writers to write a Robin gets Powers Fanfic. I'm posting this because I have been looking around and have noticed a sad lack of them, especially once you remove vampirism from the equation. As Such, I challenge any potential or established fanfic writer who thinks they have the skill to prove it by writing a Robin with powers Fanfic. It could be anything, like Robin blackmails Malchior for power, or Robin gets critically injured and becomes a half-demon from oversaturation with Raven's power when she heals him, or robin gets a blood transfusion, or Robin gets exposed to a alien virus/bio weapon/experimental compound/mutagen etc, stopping a robbery, or Robin modifies/experiments with the nanomachines the titans were infected with during the Slade incident, or Robin gets changed by Raven on accident or by something in her room while looking for her, etc, or robin gets cursed powers. Extra points for well written Half-Demon Rob-Rae fics, but there are a lot of possibilities, so if you're looking for a challenge, then pick one and GO!

Note on Continuity -

This and many others of my stories take place in Mid-Worlds, Alternate realities born to bridge the Gap between DC universe's Earth-T and a different, non-parallel Earths (e.g. Between DC universe's Earth-T and an alternate dimension equivalent such as the Breath of Fire 1-3's Earth, as opposed to an alternant reality equivalent such as DC universes Earth-1), kind of like the gap between two sheets of paper, and how the gap belongs to both sheets of paper, with different degrees of ownership for each piece of paper depending on which side of the gap. As such, if you have continuity issues, then :P to you, as it's not the original Earth-T and is thus somewhat different (e.g. things such as why Robin left Gotham and Batman).

Note on Scene Break: having a downspace followed by a –shift- then another downspace denotes a scene break, which may be used for various things, from a shift in location to a shift in perspective. I could make it more complicated, but I'm a simple-complex kinda guy, and for now I think I like it just fine as is.

Note on Rating: this story will be Rated M, for language partially, but mostly for possible future content. You have been Warned.

Now onto the Chapter!

Chapter 1: Confession

Robin had just arrived back at titan tower after being called to help manage a crime wave in Gotham. He was battered, bruised, severely wounded and bleeding, and all-in-all just plain wanting to patch himself up and sleep it off. So of course, when he sensed a malicious presence on top of the tower with the rest of the titans, he went to investigate.

Robin was in a relatively foul frame of mind as he ascended to the roof, thinking along the lines that if this were something like Raven attacking Beastboy after he'd raided her room or something he might just stand and watch. Such thoughts were cut off as he opened the door to the rooftop only to see raven in the arms of a tall, dark stranger who was eying her like a piece of meat. His rage built at the very sight of the scene before him, and then he **snapped**.

-shift-

Raven had been lost in the enchantment of Malchior's eyes, in ways far more literal than she knew, only for her and the rest of the titans present to be jolted from their stupor by a visceral and inhuman snarl from the stairs, just in time for her to teleport clear of the descending jaws and embrace of, not a fellow Mage, but as she now saw, the Dark Dragon Malchior.

For an instant after escaping his grasp, Raven felt betrayed, and it was in this instant of stunned silence of the others and while she gathered herself to retaliate, that **He** descended.

It was Robin, it was said in the way he moved if nothing else. But at the same time it wasn't. There was no way this was Robin as they knew him, for the one who descended to smite the dragon, although wounded, was enshrouded in a savage aura and was mask-less, his eyes held the promise of his foes death and were terrible to behold, and as he struck a terrible and fatal blow with a blade of midnight darkness, the others felt his fury at the dragon as it sang within his blood.

-shift-

As Robin felt himself come back from the brink of his bloodlust he looked over to the others on the roof, only to find them taken aback or in various degrees of shock at his actions, especially Beastboy and Terra who were comically huddling together in chibified teary-eyed shock as the Gem on Terra's forehead (somewhat similar to ravens in shape and design, but made of emerald) steadily dimmed from bright to dull blue-green in instinctive fear.

Seeing their stunned silence at his actions and his tattered maskless visage, He simply says "If you want something then I'll be in my room, though I suggest you don't come in." And with that he pulled his sword from Malchior's freshly expired corpse, flicking it clean of blood and gore while tucking it under his arm in a single movement with a warriors precision, then proceeded back down the stairs and to the awaiting yet extensive first aid kit in his room.

Everyone looked to one another for a moment before Beastboy burst out in an uncharacteristic manner of shock "Holy SHIT! I Mean did you guys SEE THAT! I've haven't seen Robin like this since that time with Cinderblock and those Slade bots, No wait scratch that, I've NEVER seen Robin like this! I mean, he just killed a DRAGON, like it was nothing and in one hit, using a Big-Assed **SWORD** of all things, and he, **He** **KILLED**!"

The rest of them, having heard many of their own thoughts voiced by BB (interchangeable with Beastboy) decided to voice their own opinion on the matter, beginning with Starfire.

"I too am worried about Friend Robin's sudden fearsomeness, although I am not sure if his actions should be counted as this "KILLED" you speak of, as on my home planet we have gladiators who engage in similar feats of strength, although even they are not so ferocious. I have also seen shows on your Earths T.V. where similar beasts are slain, which is also not seen as killing." She concluded, only to be rebutted by Cyborg who deciding against explaining how the dragon slayers on T.V. were almost certainly actors in made up stories began to speak.

"Star, as much as it pains me to say it, I think BB may be right for once. I know most of you were paying attention to Mr. Black-and-Scale-Wings over there, but the camera's in the tower caught Robin coming up those stairs and he Saw the dragon-" "Malchior." interjected Raven. "Right. Well what I'm saying is he saw this Malchior guy in a human form before he turned into a dragon and Robin shishkebab'd him in the head regardless. Now I know you want to say he probably thought Malchior was just some shape shifting monster or something, but either way we don't know if he even really cared." Finished Cyborg in a voice that suggested even he was disturbed by where his logic took him.

"So what should we do?" asked Terra. Cyborg replied "I think... I think someone needs to talk to him. Ask him what's going on and learn how he feels. Something like that."

This statement bought mixed reactions from the titans, Starfire and Raven in particular. Starfire, upon hearing Cyborgs statement, lost what little buoyancy she had left, while Raven puckered her lips as if she had tasted something bitter before breaking the newly formed silence.

"So then, who wants to go?" she said, to which Starfire hastily replied "I would very much like to be of help to Friend Robin, but I cannot as we Tamaranians have trouble with the sharing of the negative emotions, as they often cause us to lose hold of our powers, sometimes to disastrous effects." Although her reasoning was sound, Raven knew better. Both her and Cyborg had realised after they interacted with Starfire's people on Tameran that it was not a matter of Starfire's powers that kept her from comforting Robin, but rather a matter of mentalities which led Starfire to be unable to properly comprehend or accept the darker parts of Robins nature, thus resulting in her leading Robin on and keeping them from truely attempting to pursue a relationship.

Moving on from this, eyes turned to Cyborg "I would like to help Robin, I would, but I kinda get the feeling he wouldn't want to look weak in front of one of us guys right now, so I'm out, and since this doesn't seem to be a time for jokes then the same goes double for BB."

After hearing his statement Raven, and surprisingly BB, agree on both counts, to which eyes turn upon the changeling. "What, I agree with Cyborg, it's not the time for funny *everyone else looks shocked* and besides, when Robin was out here he was emitting Alpha-Male-Predator so strongly he almost burnt out my nose, so I think sending in your lovably masculine, pheromone emitting shapeshifter would be a pretty bad idea, and close to suicidal if Mr. Sparta in there can sense said pheromones and starts feeling territorial."

Needless to say everyone stood there gobsmacked by the unnaturalness and rarity of a serious and analytical Beastboy, taking almost a full minute to be free of their stupor and turn to the next in line, Terra, who began to sweat and shift nervously.

"Umm... Well, it's not that I don't want to help Robin, but we still haven't had a chance to clear the air between us after he had Raven send me to Azerath to train with the monks, mostly because he's been back and forth between Jump and Gotham helping Batman with that crime wave. I just don't know how we'll react if I tried to talk to him, I mean I'm grateful to him for the whole saving-me-from-the-dark-side thing, and especially for helping me by suggesting me going to Azerath to me and Raven, but since we haven't had a chance to sit down and talk about everything which happened with **me**, I just don't know if it'd go too well if I tried to talk to or give **Him** advice, you know?"...

After thinking in silence for a moment, the group looked to the remaining, purple haired titan, who simply said sarcastically "Yeah, sure, send the girl with the emotional range of an apathetic rock in a Zen garden to talk with a guy who just managed to make Beastboy act sober by his very presence"... The stares from her fellow Titans continued unabated and she looked at Malchior's body to avoid eye contact. After all, it was bad enough she could feel their emotions, she didn't want to have to **see** them. While slowly losing the mental struggle against her impending doom, she noticed a few iridescently powerful gems rise from Malchior's corpse where he was slain by Robin's Sword, and nonchalantly used her powers to pluck the stones from the air above the dead dragon and draw them to herself, where she promptly quarantined them in a pocket dimension within the shadows of her robe. Still hearing nothing but silence even after this action she relented somewhat. "...Fine, but I accept no blame for any explosions, homicides or crimes against nature or other such atrocities which may occur as a direct or indirect result of this." Raven said before fading into the floor of the roof and making her way to Robin's room, leaving the others to sweatdrop in her wake at both her quasi-legally binding words of doom and her casual looting of the dead dragon, while wondering if this was indeed such a good idea.

Raven arrived at Robin's rather simply labelled door after phasing through the roof and stopped outside it. She then knocked on it next to his metallic name plaque before calling out in her usual monotone. "Robin, we need to talk. May I come in?"

"Can you come back later?" she heard in a voice that sounded like Robin, yet strained enough to immediately arouse suspicion. Ever sarcastic, Raven replied "Why, are you doing some "self-maintenance" or something?" adding just enough dry innuendo to her voice that the insinuation got across, causing Robin to be caught off guard due to who said it and hurry to deny it due to shocked embarrassment. "What? NO! God, do you think I came in here to jump around naked or something?"

"Well good, then you won't mind if I come in and we talk" said Raven before phasing through the door of Robin's room, only to find him hiding in the corner of his room under a blanket and enshrouded in shadows. Unable to seeing him in within the blanket in the shadows, Raven reached her hand out to the light switch to turn on the light, but paused for a moment as she heard a sudden protest. "Don't!" Exclaimed Robin hastily, his voice portraying such anxiety it halted Raven's hand in its progress. "Robin?" she queried, "Robin, what's wrong?"

As she waited for a response, Raven couldn't help the thought that something must be deeply, horribly wrong. The reason behind it was simple yet at the same time all but incomprehensible. Robin, the same Robin who went toe to toe with metahumans and monsters on a daily basis with nothing but his own vanilla mortal strength and a belt full of gadgets to back him up, that Robin showed _**Fear**_.

Slowly Robin moved to face her, and Raven's breath hitched as she heard the hitch of vulnerability in his voice.

"Please Raven, promise you won't hate me?" Robin all but begged of her. Hearing this Raven replied with a question of her own. "Robin, why do you think I could ever hate you?"

Expecting affirmation of their friendship rather than looking for an answer, Raven was somewhat shocked when Robin tilted his face under the blanket so his eyes were level with hers and gave one. "Because Raven" he said, his voice cracking on slightly on the words, "I'm Brood".

Even if Raven was expecting a dozen possible answers, what she heard would have never been among them. As if to crush the last vestige of rebellion from her mind after seeing the denial on her face, Robin dropped the blanket from its hooded position around his head and let it rest upon his shoulders, leaving Raven to gaze into his mask-less, reptilian-slitted, deep blue eyes.

-shift-

At first Raven was in denial, but after Robin dropped the blanket to his shoulders and she gazed into his non-human luminescent deep blue eyes, she was envious of her previous state, tenuous grasp on reality be damned. As soon as she saw his eyes and it registered to her what she was seeing, Raven was assaulted by memories of a thousand tomes and stories, all pertaining to one of the strongest, most feared races to ever walk the Earth or stride between dimensions.

**The Brood.** A race of such power they have decimated armies with their merest stirrings. A race of such inconceivable might they have ruined civilizations and toppled empires though the actions of a single champion. The Brood were a race known to topple gods from upon their lofty heights, or even to become such gods themselves. They were the Race whom had all but destroyed the world, fighting amongst themselves for the favour their goddess, bestowed by her in the form of keys which she gave to their tribes. Their goddess was known by most as Tyr, or sometimes Myria to others. They were the race who forged an empire in blood at the behest of that selfsame goddess years later, only to turn around and smite her. They were then thought to have died out from the face of the world, only for one of their number to reveal himself and murder a benevolent god in cold blood, an action they did not once, but again centuries after.

Dragons are known as mortal enemies to all who have magic in their blood. And this led to her last thought as she faintly gazed into his iridescent eyes.

**'Robin is Brood; Robin is a Dragon'.**

:end chapter:

So yeah, Robin's a member of The Brood. how will Raven react to this and what about the others? More on that in next chapter.

Also, this is the first solo fanfic I've ever really put up on this site, and as I currently don't have a proof reader/editor (aside from the wonderful application known as spell-check,) I welcome any and all advice both on writing styles and also including things such as "hey, you forgot to delete/finish a sentence at yada-yada point on page" because, lets face it, human + spell-check does not = infallible. It should be said that while I welcome all constructive criticism and advice, I don't welcome flamers, as a flamer is someone who bags out someones work yet is too lazy to put their money where their mouth is and sugest either a way to improve something or a different way of doing it, etc. Also, one of the reasons I'm doing this, aside from improving my writing, aside from the fact that I like both the Breath of Fire game series and Teen Titans and wanted to do a fanfic with them both in it, is that I have seen a remarkable lack of "Robin gets Powers" fanfics, especially ones where said powers aren't vampirism. Which is also why I'm posting a challenge on this page (see top for details). Anyway, see you next chapter and don't forget to review.


	2. Chapter 2 Reconsiliation

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, the Breath of Fire series, DC Comics in general or anything else I drew on or one may suspect I drew from in the creation of this Fanfic, which incidentally is a non-profit work. Other than all the copy-writed and otherwise preowned stuff however, this is all me.

Note on Names: The original Breath of Fire I had various translation inconsistencies when translated from the original Japanese to English, such as the names of characters, and as such I am going by names as given on the Breath of Fire Wiki, so if you have complaints take it up with them. :P

Also, Don't forget to check out my challenge from chapter 1!

Chapter 2: Reaction

'**Robin is a Dragon'. **This thought circled within Raven's head, giving rise to a panicked anxiety and a thousand other thoughts besides. 'Robin is a Dragon, how could I not know', 'How could he betray us like this?' _'How could he betray **Me**like this?'_ 'Is he going to attack?' 'I have to get away!' 'I need to _**Leave!**_**'**

As Robin watched, he saw a hundred different expressions flit across her face, and heard the sound of random detonations throughout the tower and surrounding island, a sure sign of Raven's emotional turmoil. Knowing this, he instinctively reached forward to comfort her, only to stop almost instantly as she flinched back from his hand as if in fear of touch, accompanied by the distant sound of breaking glass. After watching what appeared to be the beginnings of shock start to manifest upon her visage, he decided to try a different route.

"Raven, Raven, Look at me Raven! You need to **Calm Down**!" By the end he was forced to shout over the escalating sound of explosions but it seemed to have the desired effect as Raven took a shuddering breath and looked him in the eye, something which made her next question impossible to lie to.

"Why? Tell me why Robin, I need to know." she asked simply, yet with underlying brittleness and a million different meanings.

'Why did you hide this, why did you not trust me, why did you befriend me, why did you deceive me, why did you hurt me? Why, why, Why!' and last but most dreaded 'Did we ever mean **anything **to you? Did **I** mean anything? I NEED TO KNOW'

Hearing her emotion in her voice, Robin tried to answer rationally.

"Raven, there are a lot of reasons why and I could tell you them all day, but instead I'll tell you this. I have always known I was of the Brood, but it's been something I've kept hidden from almost everyone except Batman, but after arriving in Jump, meeting everyone and forming the Titan's together I just couldn't bring myself to tell you guys."

"That's not an answer _**Boy-Blunder**_, now quit speaking riddles and **tell me** you goddamned liar!" she finished in a sharp voice, only to be met and overmatched by Robin's own.

"You want to know why then fine! I have always had to hide what I am ever since Batman took me in, and when I realised I'd begun to see the rest of the Titans as family, I grew afraid! I was so scared of how everyone would react when they found out and afraid that they would leave, but most of all I couldn't bear to lose **you."**

Catching his breath, Robin looked on as Raven, still stunned by his words, attempted to reply.

"You were afraid of losing _**Me**_? Why me, I thought you liked Star?"

"I do like Star, she's almost like a sister to me, but she can't accept me with my flaws which define me, so we can never be more then that." Trailing off after forgetting Raven's acute hearing he added "Besides, she's not the one I made the Titans for, you are..."

"You made the Titans... for me?" Queried Raven, shocked by the comment.

"Well, yeah.." said Robin embarrassed at being caught red handed but not able to lie.

"Why?" asked Raven for what seemed to her to be the hundredth time in the last two minutes. Instead of answering her this time however, Robin posed a question of his own.

"Hey Raven, do you remember how we met?"

"You mean when we ended up having to calm down Starfire and save her from some alien slave-traders who wanted a ransom?" asked Raven.

"No, before that," said Robin, "although it's ok if you don't remember since I wasn't in uniform."

Seeing Raven's questioning look, Robin recollected.

"Well I'd just been to visit Jason Blood and Doctor Fate at the watchtower for a physical check-up, as they're both among the only ones who know I'm Brood, as well as being just about the only ones in the world capable of assessing my physical and mystical wellbeing considering how extremely rare members of my race are. Anyway, after being assessed I was walking to the conference rooms lobby to wait for Batman. When I arrived I heard a shouting match from behind the room's doors and saw a young sorceress waiting in the lobby and looking like the weight of the world was on her shoulders. It was strange you know, because as soon as I laid eyes on her, I felt like something clicked, like I'd found something I didn't even know I was missing just by looking at her. So after we'd talked for a couple hours then having heard she was denied by the League, I told her that I'd be starting a superhero group in Jump City and that she should look me up. Then Batman came to get me and we left."

After recounting the events exactly as he remembered them, Robin looked over at Raven nervously as she plonked on the bed a little stunned before replying.

"That was you?" she asked, somewhat shocked that here before her, curled up in a blanket and having been her comrade since the Titans were formed, was the same person who became the only bright spot in such an otherwise dark day, and who had been the one to convince her to move to Jump City in the first place.

"Yeah and while I'll understand if you hate me, now you know what I am just please don't fear me, okay?" said Robin.

"Idiot." said Raven flatly, "While I **am** a little pissed about you hiding all this, especially the fact it was you at the Watchtower, I can't really throw stones about keeping secrets now can I."

"If you're talking about you not telling anyone about you being a scion to something big, bad and evil, then don't sweat it, I already know." Replied Robin nonchalantly.

"You know I'm half-demon?" Said Raven in shock, accompanied by a pulse of power which served to either explode or mutate inanimate objects in localised radius around Titan Island, and not necessarily in that order.

Hearing her outburst, Robin couldn't help but look at her quizzically "Half-Demon?" he echoed, causing Raven to pale further in fear of his reaction to what she'd just let slip, before becoming further shocked as he continued. "Raven, I don't know where you heard that but I can assure you that your only a quarter at best. In fact, if anything, your power feels more along the lines of a member of The Brood than that that of a Demon, yet not quite like a regular brood member either."

"What do you mean by that?" Asked Raven additionally confused about her now-questionable pedigree. "The monks of Azarath said my father is Trigon, a demon." She stated.

"Well, just between you and me, the monks of Azarath have a bit of a tendency to label just about anything big, bad and evil a demon, just like they usually call the Brood as a whole evil" said Robin, becoming bitter towards the end.

"Wait, are you saying the Brood isn't evil?" asked Raven.

"Okay Raven, first of all, let me answer your questions in order. Firstly, if I have to guess then I'd bet that Trigon, rather than being a full blooded demon, would be an entity who bears a common ancestry or other such connection with the Brood, such as us both being exposed to a similar power or deity. Secondly, by not being like a regular Brood member, I mean you feel more like one of the Endless than a regular Brood member, which we'll talk about later, and thirdly, according to the monks of Azarath, there is no distinction between the Brood and dragon's in general, and barely a distinction between a normal dragon and an evil demon dragon such as Malchior. This last assumption by them is complete and utter bullshit, and further serves to show how bigoted and inaccurate their stereotyping really is." Said Robin, a look of irritation on his face when speaking of Mage-born typecasting, something which he doubtless found distasteful. "There's also the fact that I'm not evil".

"But what about the histories?" Raven asked before continuing, "The Brood is said to have almost destroyed the world to gain the favour of a goddess. Then failing that, they turned around and attacked her!" said Raven, growing somewhat disgusted at detailing the Brood's supposed actions. Continuing on she said "And if that wasn't enough, later, your people were responsible for striking down a god known as Eva, when by all accounts of the time he'd done nothing to the people except be benevolent and help them prosper, as had his church. And finally, after all of that, the Brood had the gall to repeat their actions again by smiting yet another goddess, and threw the world into upheaval yet again in doing so.

Robin looked at her and queried with a voice that grew steadily more pissed with each passing word and made it clear to Raven she'd found a sore point. "Let me ask you Raven, were any of those histories written by a member of the Brood? No? Did any of your precious scholars ever bother to **ask** a member of the Brood instead of just assuming we were evil? No? Did any of those 'historians' do **anything **but regurgitate what they found written down in half rotten tomes by those who were either ignorant of or predisposed to be against the Brood? Did they? No? **Then who the hell gave them the right to play God!**" he finished.

"So you're saying it didn't happen then?" She queried after wincing at his volume.

"Not like that" replied Robin more calmly. "Those 'gods' as you call them were far from blameless." He said, "Especially considering that the 'two goddesses' as you called them were in fact one and the same being known as Myria, and that she was the one who started the war in the first place in an attempt to kill off the Dragon clans so they couldn't stop her spawn from remaking the world in his image. After the goddess's initial defeat she was sealed away, but managed to enthral the Dark Dragon clan to do her bidding until an Endless of the White Dragon Clan managed to defeat Myria and by extension remove the last traces of her enthrallment from the Dark Dragon clan whom she'd used as puppets to obtain freedom. It was these events which led the members of the Dragon Clans to reassemble as the Brood to prevent a repeat occurrence." Robin took a breath before continuing to explain his people's history to Raven.

"After reintegrating, the Brood set out to find the spawn Myria had hinted at when fighting, in order to put a stop to it should it prove a threat to the world. Upon finding it years later however they found out her spawn was a demonic god by the name of Deathevan who had started the religious organisation named The Church of Saint Eva and was feeding on their worship, and it took the majority of the Brood's power to hold him back with them being unable to defeat him, leaving the Brood to fight using all their might and magic for them to keep their ground against a steadily strengthening enemy holding him and his minions back until an Endless One eventually rose to defeat him. Lastly, Myria eventually returned, and because she feared for the world when faced with the potential of both technology and the Brood, she orchestrated a near-stagnation of technology to the point where society was merely subsisting on the crumbs she allowed them, and also began a mass genocide of the Brood. She managed the latter by playing god to a group of humans and proclaiming all dragons as evil, the Brood included, and attempting to have her followers kill us all. Some of the Brood were able to be saved by various means, and it was one such member who managed to overthrow the goddess Myria some hundreds of years later. Any last questions?" asked Robin, amused at Raven who was now hanging off his every word.

"Plenty, but for now I'll only ask a few. What did you mean about there being a distinction between the Brood, Dragons and Demon Dragons, what is an Endless, and where the hell did you get that sword you used to kill Malchior?" asked Raven.

"Um, well in order then. The main groups are Dragons, which we are descended from through convergent evolution and judicious use of polymorphing. The Brood revere Dragons, especially the Eldritch and Greater Dragons, as living Deities since they are our ancestors and sometimes the elders of our kind, only rivalled among our kind by the most powerful of the Brood and the Endless, who are a rarity and are entities of power in their own right. Then there are The Brood, who are a clan of humanoids who can transform into dragons, with the strongest among us able to become full-fledged dragons who can transform into humans. Finally, there are Demon-Dragons, such as Malchior, who can be broken down into various subcategories but are mostly by origin either Brood members or Dragons tainted by dark power, or demons who were altered by either a dragon's power or the Brood's, although Malchior was an exception which I won't go into now. But anyway, it's extremely rare for a Brood member or a Dragon to become tainted by dark power, as the power must be stronger than their own. In most cases the Dragon or Brood member develop the magical equivalent of a fever and burn the taint out, with them ending up stronger and/or with new powers as a result. There have even been cases where a demonic entity has been altered by the power of the Brood to the point they become Brood in their own right, although as an occurrence it's incredibly rare even for lesser demons, and astronomically so for demon lords and above, not to mention the metamorphosis is supposedly **incredibly** painful due to having the corruption burned out of their blood." said Robin.

Robin could tell Raven was feeling somewhat overwhelmed by adjusting to the new and contradicting knowledge but he decided to try and get everything cleared up at once. "Regarding your last two questions; an Endless One, or Endless for short, is an entity who is pretty much a living embodiment of power. The Endless bear such a strong essence that it makes them effectively immortal unless slain, which is a difficult feat in itself. When an Endless arises among The Brood they are usually revered by them as living Deities, much like they do dragons. Lastly, while I am a full blooded Brood member, I am not _**just**_ some member of the Brood, as my father's line is descended from a demon-dragon who retained his powers after becoming Brood, leaving his descendants to inherit the knowledge of and ability to develop the same and similar powers themselves, like my power of Forge Mastery."

Hearing this last admission floored Raven like none before it and it wasn't due to Robin's heritage. Raven had researched enchantment and other such arts extensively while on Azarath in an attempt to find a method or relic which could control her powers. It was through her pouring over the tomes in Azarath's extensive archives that Raven learned that what was today regarded as the art of Enchantment was actually a mere remnant of an ancient art called Forging, where one would fashion an artefact by taking a suitable base and infusing it with the desired magic's as it was made, rather than merely enchanting a pre-existing object. The only means modern sorcerers could even come close to making such artefacts in modern times was by fashioning an object with magic then enchanting it afterwards, a process which while far superior to enchanting a run of the mill gem or sword, was still inferior to actually forging such an artefact from scratch. Her and Terra's gems were both works of Forging, which was one of many reasons they valued them so much as they knew such artefacts were all but irreplaceable.

Noticing Raven's preoccupation, Robin gave her a moment before continuing. "As for my blade itself, It's named Silent Obsidian and it's my masterwork, and far more complex than apprentice level works such as your and Terra's gems. As you know, it's traditional for the wielder of such an artefact to always keep it on their person, which is why I usually keep mine on me as my mask rather than having to call it to me if I need it. Was there anything else?"

Raven had to think a moment before replying. "Why did you kill Malchior?"

"You aren't going accept 'because he was going to eat you' as an answer, are you?" Robin asked and stated.

"Not really, no."

"Fine" said Robin as he began to explain distastefully, "Have you ever heard of a Demon Leech?"

"Yes, they're a category of parasite Demon which infiltrate the body of magic users or other magical life forms, devouring their life-force until they eventually take control of their victims body, leaving just enough life-force alone so their hosts mind can subsist, which in turn keeps their hosts body alive while leaving the them locked inside their flesh with no control over it while the Demon takes their body and the majority of the body's power and does whatever it wants with it. Eventually the Demon will "outgrow" the body, leaving them to jump to a new host and start the cycle again. I don't see what this has to do with Malchior though, you said yourself that a Dragon's power tends to purge all but the strongest outside influences."

"And it does in most cases, but like almost every other race Dragons have to grow into their power."

"You mean..." she trailed off horrified, only to have Robin continue where she stopped.

"I mean that the first thing I saw on coming back home from Gotham, was a Demon trying to simultaneously seduce, possess and devour the only person on my team who truly understands me, while using the malnourished and stunted body of a possessed whelp-turned-dragon to do so, all the while having the shattered and broken mind of that child clinging to my psyche as he screamed and begged for me to either save him, kill him or both. I left Gotham to spread my wings and get _away_ from soul staining shit like this, not to come back from an emergency cleanup of Gotham's most psychotically disturbed minds and end up finding something even worse. I mean, God, the only reason I managed stay human and not rip him apart with my own claws was I couldn't risk leaving the child's soul with the Demon's, and I'm still trying to resist the urge to transform and rip whatever bastard spawned that Leech apart."

As Robin said this, Raven saw his whole eyes glow fiercely black with a sickly pale yellow outlining his irises and pupils as his skin shifted between human and a wave of ebony and crimson scales from his cheekbones to the hinges of his jaw, turning back and forth like the lapping of a stormy tide, accompanied by waves of magic just _reeking_ of absolute fury.

Recognising the signs as similar to when her anger got the best of her, Raven looked into those death-starving eyes and tried to get Robin's attention before he lost control.

"Robin, look at me Robin. You need to focus or you'll lose control, I need you to tell me what helps you focus since you don't have a chant or incantation, can you do that for me Robin?"

Not hearing a reply Raven was growing more panicked as the waves of energy rolling off of Robin only continued to rise and was about to shout for his attention when she heard him.

"...Look... ...Speak..." he gritted out between his teeth as they shifted back and forth to fangs.

"What do you say Robin? Do you want me to leave?" asked Raven trying to puzzle out his meaning from his words.

Steeling himself upon hearing Raven's words, Robin was able to hold back the changing of his teeth long enough to speak around them.

"Look at my eyes and don't stop talking, your being here helps.." said Robin as he began to sweat from the strain of forcing his body to stay stable.

"Talk? Talk about what?"

"Your favourite food, a place to stay, poetry, an_y_**_th_****ing!"** said Robin, his words becoming a loud and pained snarl as his stability slipped, his flesh and bones shifting unnaturally as it made up for lost time.

Blushing slightly about the idea of giving an exposé about herself and her life and momentarily forgetting the gut churning anxiety about Robin's now terrifyingly high power levels, Raven began to speak. "Ok, my favourite foods are herbal tea and waffles, and my favourite place to hang out is a Cafe near Felix Street and Lyrial Yard. It's a bit hard to get to since you need to go through three or four alleyways but since I can teleport it's no big deal. One of the reasons I like it there is that it has books and tomes on a variety of subjects and the bartender makes great food and stocks my tea. Since it's an agreed neutral territory it caters to a variety of individuals and is usually pretty calm since no one is allowed to fight when on the premises, meaning that the readers corner is almost always quiet unless the silencing wards on it get broken, and while on the premises the worst I have to deal with is the occasional apprentice mage deciding to call me a demon spawn."

Raven had been about to stop talking as Robin had seemed to calm down, but quickly began talking again after feeling his power flare up in anger at her last words.

"As for poetry, there's a lot which I've read but my favourite is one called 'Midnight Maiden'. The name of the author is lost to the ages, but it's about the Lord of a Realm who fell in love with a woman for her beauty and her heart, as did she for his, and how the secrets of their heritage and regard for the opinion of the world faded to insignificance compared to their unconditional love for one another, and it remains my favourite as it's the closest description I've ever found for true love."

As Raven concluded and lost the faraway look in her eyes she noticed how Robin's attention was riveted upon her and realised the depth of insight into her character which one could gain from such a statement. Luckily, or perhaps unluckily if you were anyone but Raven, Robin failed to notice the resounding explosions and shrieks of his fellow Titans echoing throughout the tower in the background, as Robins lack of attention had allowed his energies to escalate to the point where he was barely restraining his transformation with what few tattered shreds of control he had left. Knowing he couldn't hold out much longer, he focused his attention on his mouth to the point where he could at least talk around the jagged fangs he had for teeth.

_**"Raven, I can't hold back much longer, I need you to take me somewhere far away from people now!" **_said Robin, draconic tones creeping into his voice.

"Where do you need to go?"

_**"Just dump us in the desert somewhere, it doesn't really matter so long as its isolated that I won't hurt anyone and I won't be seen transforming."**_

"If I try to teleport us out there we might end up stranded for awhile if I have to use my magic to keep yours contained."

_**"If you can't use your power then use mine, just suck it up and GO!"**_

Having both found a solution and Robins approval, Raven began to draw upon his ambient magic to power her teleportation, taking extra care to further reinforce the spell for more control, given how she was working with someone else's mana without converting it to hers. As soon as it was done she whisked her cloak around herself while making sure to envelope both the huddled form of Robin and his mask, and they were gone.

-scene break-

As soon as she arrived at their destination Raven knew something had gone wrong. It may have been her brilliant powers of deduction at work or the fact that she had felt a flare of mana which altered the teleportation's destination from the middle of a plateau in the desert to the very edge of it with jagged rocks strewn below the cliff-side, but either way having Robin, a.k.a Mr. Flightless, hanging suspended in the crumbling remains of her teleportation magic over the edge of said cliff was what would be considered, in some circles, as a bit of a hint. All of the previously mentioned factors took a second or so to be realised, while the unravelling of the teleportation's grasp took considerably less than that. As such, the first thing Robin found upon emerging from Ravens shadow transportation was a decided absence of ground beneath his feet, followed by a rather alarming subjugation to gravity.

-scene break-

Robin was used to all sorts of pain, as well as life threatening and other kinds of circumstances, and had been conditioned with the help of Batman to react to such situations accordingly. As such, after the initial reflex panic of being accidentally teleported off a cliff by his teammate, he instantly calmed himself while waiting for Raven to catch him and looking for a spot to employ his grappling hook upon the relatively sheer cliffs. It came as a surprise then, when instead of being rescued by one of those occurrences, he was instead surrounded by a glorified multi-hued bubble of light with a bunch of different coloured stones orbiting randomly around his person at the edge of the bubble. As soon as he had registered their presence, the stones, almost as if sensing his eyes upon them, broke from their orbit and proceeded to streak toward him and be absorbed on contact. As each stone was absorbed, it's descriptor echoed through his mind.

'SHADOW, HEAL, ELDRITCH, FALLEN, DEMON, FORGE, ABSORB, DOMINION, FIRE'

It was such a painful echo in his mind it made him want to scream, but all that made it out was a shriek-turned-roar as Robin lost his human form.

-scene break-

Raven had rushed to the edge of the cliff as soon as she registered Robin falling, only to be shocked when her attempts to save him with her powers were rebuffed by the appearance of a multi-hued barrier which rather than block her power seemed to _devour_ a part of it before reforming it into yet another of the stones she could see hovering around Robin's now gently floating form. As she grabbed his mask from the ground beside her at the edge of the cliff and began to think of another means to ferry Robin to safety, she was interrupted as she saw him being struck by and _absorbing_ the stones into his person. The whole process took less than a minute, yet looked incredibly painful if the expression of unbridled agony on the Boy Wonder's face was anything to go by, a thought which was further reinforced when a series of runes began to inscribe themselves into his flesh as if burned into it by magic, followed by an agonised roar of pain as the energy surrounding him coalesced into a blinding white flare of power which seemed to expand over the course of a few seconds until it settled and faded away, revealing to Raven a European styled Black and Crimson scaled Dragon almost twice the size of Beastboy as a T-rex and with an aura of power which took her breath away.

Taking in Robin's new appearance, Raven noted that although he looked somewhat similar to Malchior there were various differences, such as his wings projecting from his where his shoulder blades would be if he were human, rather than running the length of his back, and the fact that unlike Malchior his form looked relatively well nourished and although it still bore the slenderness of youth there was nothing sickly in its nature. Like Malchior however, he had a series of wickedly sharp spines running the length of his body, beginning with wickedly sharp horns on his head and descending the length of his neck and back while continuing to protect his spinal column until the series of spines terminated in a number of wickedly sharp thorn-like barbs at the end of his tail.

Levitating up to look him in the eye Raven searched his now inhuman features to assure herself the creature before her was indeed still Robin. Seeing her do this, he decided to put her at ease and spoke.

**"So, like the new look?"** Robin teased her.

"Just because you're quite literally horny now isn't an excuse to act on it" Raven deadpanned, causing Robin to sweatdrop as Raven hung his mask off of one of his aforementioned horns. "Come on Robin, you've transformed, had a laugh and I'm pretty sure your mask can impersonate clothing, so hurry up and change back so we can return to the tower."

At this Robin began to look away a little shiftily, which isn't exactly inconspicuous on a giant lizard.

"What's wrong now?" asked Raven, beginning to act fatalistic with all the recent turns of events.

**"...I...*mumble-mumble*..."**

"What was that?" asked Raven, hoping her acute senses didn't hear what she thought they did.

**"...I... kinda can't turn back..." **said Robin, as he awaited the explosion of a nearby and most probably inoffensive piece of scenery. Instead he got a surprisingly different reaction from Raven, at least considering recent events.

"Is that it? I mean it's not like the rest of them don't have to find out sooner or later anyway, right? After all, if we kept this in the dark now two of us know we'd have to check with each other on a regular basis to keep things secret, which will get picked up on by the rest of the guys and throw our teamwork out of sync."

Having heard and been unable to refute Raven's logic despite how his wishes to the contrary, Robin had no choice but to agree.

**"How do I tell them though, I mean, it's not like I can just walk up to them or sit them down in the Opp's room and go 'Hi guy's, I'm sorry I forgot to tell you this earlier, but I'm a giant fire breathing lizard'. I mean it wouldn't exactly work..."**

Hearing Robin's concern, Raven merely smiled as an idea presented itself.

"Well, they might not believe something like that, but I just so happen to have an idea." Said Raven, before proceeding to his reptilian ear and whispering an outline of her plan. To any who would've been watching if they were in a populated region it would have seemed as if they were watching a Dragon fall to dark seduction, as his reptilian features shifted swiftly from terror to confusion, and finally glee, which strangely enough was by far the most horrifying of the expressions when adorning such a beast.

-scene break-

Back at Titan's Tower, the rest of the Titans were crowding around Robin's door which was emitting a constant and gentle stream of smoke from where it met the walls, ceiling and floor. every Titan in attendance was armed or armoured as much as they'd been able to arrange on such short notice once the random explosions of Raven's powers had stopped. Starfire was clasping a dish of Tamaranean cooking, nervous as to what they'd find, while Terra was armoured with enough rock to impersonate either a boulder or Cinderblock's next of kin. Closer to the door were Cyborg and Beastboy, the former straining his scanners and lighting for any sign of life beyond the door while the latter was protecting his head with a stereotypical olive-coloured army helmet and had a drill-sergeant baton in hand, which he proceeded to use to nudge the door as if checking a washed up body for signs of life before he scampered back.

"Well, I guess they're not home, hehheh..."

Hearing Beastboy's comment Cyborg proceeded to knock before stumbling forward slightly only to be caught by Beastboy and Terra as the door collapsed inwards and proceeded to fall out of the Tower through the blasted remains of Robin's room before striking the rocks several stories below with an echoing clang.

"Sssooooo... Did Robin redecorate?" asked Beastboy, only to be ignored at first due to the stunned silence at what looked to be the remains of an explosion in the scorched shell of Robin's room, before being answered by Cyborg. "I don't think Robin did this B. whatever it was it used energy similar to Ravens, but it wasn't her either."

Almost as if on cue after having said those words, the Titan's spotted a winged figure in the distance flying toward them at incredible speed, so much so that the water beneath it was being churned in the wake of the air left by its passage. As it got closer they were able to identify it as some sort of dragon similar to Malchior, but it wasn't till it was almost upon them that they realised exactly how careless such thinking was. This creature was no Malchior, this dragon was to Malchior what a Dinosaur was to a garden lizard. To even think of calling the two the same was missing the scale of the subject, regardless of them both being reptiles. Thinking this was a friend of Malchior seeking revenge, Cyborg, Starfire and Terra all had one thought as they geared up for what seemed to be a hopeless fight, which went something like 'I'll never harm a gecko again'. Beastboy on the other hand was simply trying to think of an organism with less edibility than a rock, all the while thinking 'and they wonder why I'm a vegetarian, it's not so funny on this side of the food chain, is it?'

Thankfully Beastboy's attempts of subliminal conversion to Tofuism were stopped before they started as the Dragon had gotten close enough by this point for them to spy a figure on its head. As the dragon approached the island, the Titans were able to make out a billowing cloak of the hooded figure riding between its horns and in the next few second were shocked out of their reverie as the Dragon ceased it forward motion and deposited it's passenger to hover in the air in front of them before it swiftly pulled back to a more comfortable distance.

The Titan's eyed the obviously female newcomer as she pulled back her hood, exposing her face to their scrutiny. What the Titan's saw next caused them to collectively shout in surprise.

**"Raven!"**

Raven, now bearing a small quirk at the corner of her mouth to signify her silent amusement, took the opportunity to address them "So, I think I found out what was wrong with the Boy Wonder" she said before stepping slightly to the side and indicating the Winged Monstrosity who was now hovering in place beyond the wrecked wall of the Tower. This earned confusion from some and looks of slowly dawning comprehension from the others, but Raven struck while the iron was hot. "Allow me to reintroduce you to our friend here. Guy's, meet Robin."

-end chapter-

So, like? Dislike? Either way, don't forget to review and see you next chapter! :)

-Fellbound-


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